Lee Jun-seok hasn't given up on leading PPP yet

Politics

Published: 10 Aug. 2022, 17:36 Updated: 10 Aug. 2022, 18:38

Lee Jun-seok hasn't given up on leading PPP yet

Lee Jun-seok walks toward a ferry terminal on Ulleung Island on July 27. [YONHAP]

The ousted chairman of the People Power Party (PPP) said he filed for a court injunction Wednesday to block the party's switch to a new leadership structure.

The 37-year-old Lee Jun-seok, the youngest ever leader of the country's main conservative party, was suspended from the PPP following allegations that he accepted sexual favors and 11.5 million won ($8,800) in bribes from a business owner in 2013 while he was on an emergency steering committee of the Grand National Party, the PPP’s predecessor.

Lee announced he had filed for the injunction in a post on his Facebook page.

Lee wrote, “I have submitted an injunction. I will not create a new political party.”

The latter sentence appears to be Lee’s only concession to senior PPP figures who had called on the former party chairman to end internal squabbling amid sliding approval ratings for President Yoon Suk-yeol’s administration.

Prominent PPP figures have warned Lee against seeking his own reinstatement, saying it would probably not succeed.

On Saturday, Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, an influential PPP figure, warned the former chairman against seeking a court injunction to end his suspension from the party, saying it would amount to little more than an “ineffective tantrum.”

“Politically speaking, Chairman Lee’s reinstatement has become virtually impossible,” Hong wrote, adding, “I’ve told Lee to reflect on his actions and focus on his legal defense [against the allegations], but he is committing a grave mistake by continuously speaking out in extreme terms to every little incident.”

Lee has taken to social media to protest his suspension, characterizing it last Thursday as an act of politically motivated revenge for critical comments against President Yoon by one of Lee’s allies in the party.

Yoon and Lee have enjoyed a rocky relationship since Yoon began mulling a presidential run with the party last year.

The party’s new leadership is comprised of an emergency committee headed by interim leader Joo Ho-young, a five-term lawmaker who served twice as the party’s interim leader in May 2020 and April 2021, and as the party’s floor leader in that time frame.

The new leadership structure, which was finalized by the party’s national committee on Tuesday afternoon, strips Lee of his chairmanship and leaves him with no official position in the party.

Joo indicated shortly after his appointment that he would like to meet with Lee to talk things over, though there is not yet any indication that such outreach has occurred, or if Lee is willing to meet the man who has essentially taken his position as party leader.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]